Looking Back On My Award Preseason Award Predictions

We look back at some preseason predictions

Before the NBA season started, I made predictions for who would be taking home each individual award, and while I hit on some, I completely whiffed on others. Let’s see how I did:

Original Most Valuable Prediction: Kawhi Leonard
My goodness did I completely miss on this one, but come on, who would have thought that Kawhi would miss the whole freaking season with a quad injury. I’m sure most of you didn’t. I still believe Kawhi has a chance at the award next season but with how this prediction turned out I’m going to wait a little bit before I name his as my favorite candidate.

Original Defensive Player of the Year Prediction: Rudy Gobert
Despite Gobert missing a few games to injury, he was a monster this season and is one of the finalists for the hardware. However, him winning the award could be tough considering the other candidates in the mix for the award, Anthony Davis, and Joel Embiid. Since Gobert missed a few games it is unlikely he takes home the award, but as far as my prediction goes, I think I made a pretty good one.

Original Most Improved Player Prediction: Myles Turner
I had high hopes for Turner at the beginning of the year, actually, I had extremely high hopes for him because I believed he would be able to thrive in a Paul George-less system in Indiana. On the contrary, his teammate Victor Oladipo was able to shine this year and will most likely win the award. I still believe in turners potential, but he will have to do a lot to regain my trust.

Original Sixth Man of the Year Prediction: Eric Gordon
This was a prediction that couldn’t possibly fail, and while he may not win the award, Gordon played well enough to be one of the finalists for it. I’m sure most people predicted that as long as Eric Gordon played for the Rockets, he would always be able to thrive.

Original Rookie of the Year Prediction: Ben Simmons
Once again, another can’t miss prediction. Simmons and the Sixers completely exceeded expectations in their first season and won 50 while making the second round of the playoffs. Simmons was a large part of this success and is currently neck and neck with Donovan Mitchell for ROY in one of the best rookie classes to date. Simmons looks poised to be a superstar of this league for years to come if he could only fix that jump shot.

Original Coach of the Year Prediction: Steve Kerr
Unfortunately for me, the Warriors didn’t try this season, despite getting the number 2 seed in the west, which means that Kerr won’t be named coach of the year. Looking back, this prediction probably would have never happened because of both voter fatigue as well as Golden State having the two of the best players in the league. You win some you lose some.

Original NBA Executive of the Year Prediction: Sam Presti
Despite this being an award that can be decided at the start of the season, I still believe that Presti is a candidate to win it. He along with Danny Ainge are the two most likely candidates to get it, but Ainge might have to wait until both Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward are back to award him the exec of the year. After acquiring Carmelo Anthony and Paul George at the beginning of the season, hopes were high for OKC, but a disappointing season followed and saw the Thunder get beaten in the first round of the playoffs. Despite this, Presti still deserves a round of applause for what he was able to do, even if it didn’t turn out the way he wanted it.

In conclusion, I believe that I was able to get 3 out of my 7 selections right and only missed completely on about two of them. I would consider this to be pretty good as it was much harder predicting these awards than I originally thought. Anyways, I hope to be back next year with a new set of predictions and try to aim for 50% right on those.